Slashdot Log In
Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Sep 29, 2008 03:45 PM
from the just-a-bad-signal dept.
from the just-a-bad-signal dept.
Riding with Robots writes "NASA reports that the Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. According to the Canadian team running a weather experiment, a laser instrument designed to study how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers above the landing site. Data shows the snow vaporizing before reaching the surface, but one of the mission scientists said, 'We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground.' Spacecraft soil experiments have also provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water."
Related Stories
[+]
Rover Exiting Crater To Continue Martian Marathon 150 comments
Riding with Robots writes "The robotic geologist Opportunity has nearly reached the rim of Victoria Crater, which it is leaving after a year of exploration inside. Rover handlers decided to abandon attempts to approach the crater's cliff walls when they saw a power spike similar to the one that preceded a broken wheel on its twin, Spirit. Opportunity is already making do with a stuck robotic arm. The mission's manager said, 'Both rovers show signs of aging, but they are both still capable of exciting exploration and scientific discovery.' Opportunity is set to continue trekking across the Meridiani Plains of Mars, even though its wheels have already seen 10 times the use they were designed for. Meanwhile, Spirit has survived yet another harsh Martian winter to produce another striking panorama."
Adam Korbitz notes other Mars-related news that funding has been approved for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Genomes (SETG) Project. The project was one of 15 selected to receive funds through a NASA research opportunity program. The stated goal of the proposal is to "develop a PCR detector for in situ analysis on other planets, most immediately, Mars. This instrument is so sensitive it should allow the detection very low levels of microbial life on Mars, and will determine its phylogenetic position by analysis of the DNA sequence of the genes detected in situ."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Robot Santa has moved shop! (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Can someone please hack into him and fix his naughty list? We have less than three months left...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Robot Santa has moved shop! (Score:5, Funny)
That's not snow! It's falling Ash! Run little lander, ruuuuun!
I think we'll be safe, as long as he's not falling chainsaw side down.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Let me guess... You live in a crowded city and you want a BFG9000.
Re:Robot Santa has moved shop! (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia...we have Red Christmas!
Parent
If there is water... (Score:5, Funny)
Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.
Dan Quayle, 8/11/89 [quotationspage.com]
Turns out Dan was right ;)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If there is water... (Score:4, Informative)
Mars having 1/3 the gravity has more to do with its thin atmosphere than any lack of magnetic field. Having no magnetic field would remove protection from solar wind and radiation, making it unable to support life as we know it, but wouldn't actually affect how thick an atmosphere the planet could retain.
Mars has a magnetic field, btw. It's Venus that doesn't.
Parent
Re:If there is water... (Score:5, Informative)
bleh... that'll teach me to post when awake... Mars has no magnetic field, Venus has a very very weak one.
Parent
Re:If there is water... (Score:5, Insightful)
No problem, your sig excuses you.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
"bleh... that'll teach me to post when awake..."
As opposed to what, posting when asleep? I don't know that that would turn out much better... ;)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Without a strong magnetic field, the solar wind will strip away the atmosphere over time. Lighter elements especially, will be stripped away rapidly.
NASA [nasa.gov] seems to think that over 1/3 of Mars atmosphere was stripped away by solar winds over the years.
Also, Venus [swissinfo.org] is experiencing the same.
How much power? (Score:2)
So how much power would be required to generate a field large enough to protect mars?
Re: (Score:2)
Haven't you ever watched Superman 4? We just dump all our excess nukes down a crater. Should be enough to get it started.
Re: (Score:2)
We should use some of those nucular materials. They're much more powerful I hear. :)
Re:If there is water... IRONIC ftw! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If there is water... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:If there is water... (Score:5, Funny)
Yep, which means Mars supports vodka production, the key element in colonizing a cold, dark, windswept wasteland.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
the excitement about finding water on mars (Score:2)
should subside by now, and we should all be sobered by the fact that yes, there's water on mars, but only in the same way that yes, there's gold on earth: its rare and fleeting
Re:the excitement about finding water on mars (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
White Christmas? (Score:2, Funny)
OK, so any chance of a white Christmas on Mars?
Canadians? Snow? Mars? (Score:4, Funny)
Is it April 1st again?
Re: (Score:2)
No. Here is photographic proof [ncku.edu.tw] of water on mars.
Re: (Score:2)
Proof, nothing! That could be any clear liquid!
Canadian Funding rounds (Score:5, Funny)
Canadian Scientist: We'd like some money to look for Snow on Mars
Canadian Funding: Errr we have lots of Snow already
CS: Ahh but if we find snow on Mars then we can ski-doo on Mars
CF: Errr we can ski-doo here
CS: Well yes but if we find the snow first we'll get first tracks which means the Yanks will have to let us go on the manned mission
CF: Sweeeeet
Yes folks, its all about finding freshies and there is no lengths to which Canadians will not go in the search for fresh powder.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Alternative ending.
CS: Well yes but just think about how fun sledding would be with 1/3 gravity!
CF: Sweeeeet
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
With 26km of vertical [wikipedia.org], I'm bringing my skis.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
there is snow outside? Man i got to get out mo.... waaaait *looks out window* there no snow. Theres not even snow up in frigging lakehead. And thats in moose land.
Re: (Score:2)
global warming will take care of that harhar. Seriously i was in waterloo 2days ago and it was tshirt weather.... canadian tshirt weather mind you (we canadians believe it is summer all the time and will wear tshirts as long or longer than people in southern states in an attempt to make summer last longer)
Cue the colonists (Score:3, Funny)
Global warming putting a damper on your ski vacations in the Alps or Rockies? Not a problem!
Martian Lander Snow Angels next? (Score:5, Funny)
(Too bad the Hubble will not be able to take a picture of it though... http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/29/1846238 [slashdot.org] )
Re:Martian Lander Snow Angels next? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
*blink*
Ok, how about panache then?
Re:Martian Lander Snow Angels next? (Score:4, Funny)
*blink*
Ok, how about panache then?
Is that what the "P" setting on my digital camera is for?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Neat, virga on Mars. (Score:5, Interesting)
Rain or snow, like virga, on Mars may not be consisting of water only. Here is the Wikipedia entry on virga:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virga [wikipedia.org]
Also Universities Space Research Association has some information on virga:
http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=47776 [usra.edu]
They have a excellent NOAA photo of virga.
That's how you know... (Score:2)
...it's just a dream.
They're at the Poles. Winter is coming. (Score:2)
They're at the Poles. Winter is coming. It does snow there, they will see more. There will eventually be CO2 condensation as well, but IIRC that's after the Lander goes to sleep.
If this is real, I'll be fascinated (Score:2)
If we could only just get it to snow in Hell ... (Score:2, Funny)
Why didn't the damn bastard say "snows on Mars" instead, it could have saved $700 billion!
Lets just start terraforming the damn thing! (Score:2)
Seriously, can we just start terraforming the damn thing already? Who cares if there is water there, lets just start sending over plants in protected spacecraft with their own water supply and see how they do with some exposure to the atmosphere. Hell, algae would probably do the trick better than plants. Or we could make some machines to do the conversion, if we even know how to do that. I'm sick of all this "oooh, it's not completely dead yet!" research, we should just start rebuilding the damn thing!
(i r
H2O Snow? (Score:2, Insightful)
Do they know for sure that the snow is H20 snow. Or could it be snow made of something else?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That's actually far easier to determine than if it really was water that caused liquid erosion of the surface: all they had to do was to determine the temperature at which it evaporated.
"Dropo, you are the laziest man on Mars!" (Score:5, Funny)
This would be the perfect time for Santa Claus to conquer the Martians.
h2wha? (Score:2, Funny)
this dihydrogen-oxide will destroy the ozone layer